Related:

• Stand firm against all the powers that be, never yield, be strong, summon the arms of the gods to your aid.
  -- Goethe...
• You always learn something by reading the classics.
  Particularly The Prince. I go through and look at this from this intellectual point of view....
• And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.
  This," cried the Mayor, "is your town's darkest hour!...
• Lord, protect me from those to whom You speak directly.
• There once was a king who ruled his country long, wisely, and well.
  The king had a son whom he hoped would someday rule the land....
• A man is walking down the street when he sees a man with four arms, and antennae coming out of his head.
  He goes up to him and says, "You're not from around here, are you?...
• What they said: What they meant: "You will be fortunate if you can get him to work for you.
  (We certainly never succeeded.) There is no other employee with whom I can adequately compare him....
• Therefore a wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.
  -- Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince", Datalink...
• If someone tells you that the fully armored man of the Middle Ages was so encumbered by his armor that he could not rise if he fell
  you may well ask yourself, first, if it is reasonable to assume that professional soldiers would go on wearing armor that kept them from fighting and second, if this theory is in line with what you know of the heavily armored men of your personal acquaintance....